Microsoft brings the Genius Bar to the Web with Answer Desk

Microsoft has started offering a new online support service, Answer Desk, to …

Microsoft has quietly launched a new service to help Windows and Office users get the most out of their PCs. Answer Desk is an online version of the Answer Desks found in Microsoft's retail stores, which are in turn modeled on Apple's successful Genius Bars, providing users with personalized consulting on their computer problems.

Each Answer Desk consultation starts with a free chat—online or over the phone—with an Answer Desk support rep. If the free consultation isn't sufficient to answer your questions or fix your faults, you pony up some money—$49 for an hour of one-on-one Windows or Office training, $99 for an hour of Windows or Office troubleshooting, $99 for two hours of virus removal and malware protection, or $99 for two hours of PC performance tuning—and the support tech remotely controls your PC to perform their task.

Microsoft promises a jargon-free experience, which suggests that the service is aimed more at the beginner end of the customer spectrum. The services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, though training sessions need to be scheduled in advance.

The endeavor is a little surprising when one considers that Windows and Office already, in theory, come with support. Retail copies of the software qualify for phone support from Microsoft directly. And for OEM copies of Windows, which make up the majority of sales to end-users, part of the deal that OEMs agree to in order to pay lower prices for the software than retailers is that they will take on the support burden themselves.

For Microsoft to step in and offer high quality support to end-users directly suggests that existing OEM support avenues aren't doing the job properly: that Windows and Office users are suffering poor support experiences at the hands of the OEMs, and that these poor experiences are damaging perceptions of Microsoft's software. It's understandable that Microsoft would want to improve its image, but harder to see why it should let the OEMs get away with providing a poor experience in the first place.